Giancarlo Impiglia’s vibrant canvases liven up his expansive Bridgehampton studio. Bathed in light and full of color, the work at once feels both retro and contemporary — reminiscent of revolutionary murals by artists like Diego Rivera or even work by Pablo Picasso. Impiglia’s whole career can be seen along the walls of his studio. Having thoroughly absorbed the inspiration of his artistic predecessors, he continues to provide social and political commentary in his new work.
“My life is very much intertwined with the life of a community,” says Impiglia. “You learn from life. I consider it not as status quo, but dynamic.”
It’s not surprising that commentary would play a big role in Impiglia’s art. As a young student in Rome in the 1960s, he was surrounded by an astounding array of people and movements that spoke to the political, artistic and social issues of the day.
“While I was an art student and getting together with other artists of my generation, we were debating, fighting and arguing about what’s next,” says Impiglia. “I was exposed to Cubism as a young student in art, then I got exposed to the phenomena of the first 25 years of the 20th century — the Italian Futurists, contemporaries of the Cubists.”
“Artists of that generation were talking about a different world — when to be an artist was not glamorous, it was a mission,” says Impiglia. “I was in love with the idea of being an artist in that sense and the mission of the artist as a porter of information. To deliver culture, to deliver history, all these forms of information. It’s not just about the current time, but the past and the future.”
Now, Impiglia is looking back with a 25 year retrospective of his work opening this weekend at Christy’s Art Center. The show is appropriately titled “Ieri, Oggi, Domani” — yesterday, today and tomorrow — and though he cites many artistic influences in his life, Impiglia recalls being particularly moved by a group of artists who worked in Italy in the early 1960s.
“Alberto Burri was one of my favorites,” says Impiglia. “He was a post W.W.II Italian artist who created things with burlap sacks sewn together with spots of red — sacks reminiscent of W.W.II with the wounds of war, misery and poverty.”
“He became an emblematic figure in the Italian post W.W.II art world,” he adds. “He laid down a new kind of imagery that I know even Robert Rauschenberg took after.”
Burri was instrumental in the Arte Povera movement. By using everyday objects in their art, the artists sought to convey the lingering scars of war, evidence of which, Impiglia notes, could still be seen in Italy when he was young.
“It was a group of artists, older than me, and they created these emblematic paintings,” says Impiglia. “Arte Povera, means ‘poor art’ — the use of poor materials. Burlap, camouflage, canvas. Some of these artists created things from the imaginative point of view or made comments on society. I was very young and much influenced by the older generation. I started to take a look at art as a possible weapon — a form of demonstration and social use.”
Things really gelled for Impiglia when he moved to New York in the 1970s and was struck by the confluence of skyscrapers and people. It was an impression that would influence his work for years.
“The straight lines of the buildings were broken up by the people,” he says. “That energy was overwhelming and I came about to create these masses of figures. I don’t do portraits, I paint situations that recall the energy.”
In New York, Impiglia began incorporating Art Deco influences into his work. Like Depression era muralists such as Rivera, Impiglia sought to show class and social strata in his art. In a painting of a New York subway platform, for example, workers clad in overalls elbow their way through the crowd along with businessmen and well-heeled women. But his figures remain faceless, contributions to the sum total of humanity and one among the masses.
“I rediscovered Art Deco not just as a decorative movement, but as a form of evolution,” explains Impiglia. “Art deco is not a single style, but a combination of many styles. It affected design, architecture, graphic design, painting, sculpture.”
“I was the first artist in the late ‘60s to repropose the idea of Art Deco in the contemporary way,” says Impiglia. “I started to reanalyze those styles and put it together my way — with the influence of the Italian Futurists, a bit of the Cubists, a hit of Nouveau. When I came to the U.S. all these ideas flourished at once together. I saw Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Building — it’s an amazing design and an emblematic historical point in architecture that reflects an entire history of art.”
These days, Impiglia’s work is more inspired by the flora of his backyard than the skyscrapers of a working city. Yet still, whether he’s creating a intimate painting or a mural for the Queen Mary 2, Impiglia is interested in focusing on life’s contradictions and revealing them in his work.
“It’s not just a pretty picture,” he says. “It should carry more weight than just that. It should be commentary.”
Giancarlo Impiglia’s retrospective opens with a reception at Christy’s Art Center (3 Madison Street, Sag Harbor) on Friday, July 24 from 5 to 8 p.m. The show runs through August 5. For more information, call 725-7000.
